


Out Of Order

by justanoutlaw



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s07e22 Leaving Storybrooke, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-14 04:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16033382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanoutlaw/pseuds/justanoutlaw
Summary: When three heroes pay the price of a curse, Neal suddenly finds himself the older brother.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, @loboselinaistrash and I do a lot of Emma de-aging roleplays and such. One topic we’ve just started broaching is Neal becoming a big brother and how he adjusts to all of that. It lead to me writing this fic. This is 99% Daddy Charming, with 9-year-old Neal Charming. Emma kinda seems like a brat in the beginning, but everything is semi-explained later on.

All magic comes with a price and apparently Emma was destined to always pay it.

 

When Regina cast the curse to unite all the realms, it ended up turning back the clock for Robin, Alice and Emma. No one could figure out how it was all related, but it happened before their very eyes. Suddenly, the three of them were toddlers again, relying on their parents to be taken care of. For Zelena, it was a challenge, as she had 8-year-old Robin and now a 3-year-old version of her as well (who they decided to call Margot so it wouldn’t get confusing), but Regina was there to help her, just as she had been the first time.

 

For Killian, Snow and David, it was a second chance. Killian had lost the chance to raise his daughter past the age of 11 and now there was nothing stopping him from giving her a childhood free from the tower. Snow and David had never even gotten a chance to raise Emma in the first place and while they mourned the life that she had lead, they did take the opportunity to do things right.

 

It was an adjustment period, for sure. All Emma remembered was her time with her very first foster family, but she quickly adjusted to her new parents. She was very clingy with David especially. Having never been that close with her foster father, she seemed to thrive in an environment with a caring and loving dad. Snow thought it was adorable and went about the house, making sure that it was “Emma proof”.

 

There was only one person who wasn’t adjusting well to the change: Neal.

 

He had spent the first 9 years of his life as an only child, pretty much. Emma had been around, but they definitely had a different dynamic then a regular brother and sister would. At first he thought he was going to love having a younger sister. After all the trauma that his parents had went through when it came to pregnancy and giving birth both times, they had opted to not have more kids. He was disappointed, especially when it seemed Storybrooke was hit with baby fever and Aurora, Ashley and Ariel all got pregnant at the same time, making some of his best friends big siblings. So, Emma de-aging should’ve been a dream come true.

 

So, why did he feel like everything had changed for the worse?

 

Emma definitely got away with a lot more than he ever had. He didn’t remember much about his early years of course, but it just seemed like she had different rules. One night, they were all eating dinner in front of the T.V (a rare treat) and Emma had decided she didn’t want to eat anymore. Instead of taking her into the dining room to make her finish like he would’ve done with Neal, David started feeding Emma. She was cuddled up on his lap and happily let him do it. Neal decided to test the waters and push his vegetables away.

 

“Neal,” Snow said, giving him a kind but firm look. “You need to finish your veggies before you’re done.”

 

Neal tried to rationalize it at first. Maybe he wasn’t thinking clearly. Maybe it was just a one off case. After all, there were times when he got to do stuff that Emma didn’t. So, he tried to push it out of his mind and carry on. His parents had sat him down when Emma de-aged and promised him even though things were changing, it didn’t change how much they loved him.

 

Family outings were suddenly different, though. Emma couldn’t sit still for very long and David would either have to take her out, or all of them would have to leave. When they came to his swim meets, sometimes he would look out into the crowd and find that one of his parents had taken a fussy Emma out, missing him winning.

 

The final straw for Neal’s benefit of the doubt came the day that Emma had decided to draw on the walls. Neal could remember getting in big trouble for that when he was younger, so as bad as he felt for thinking that, when he saw her coloring, he was sort of glad that she would get in trouble. It wasn’t that his parents didn’t ever punish Emma. She got time outs and things taken away, same as he did at that age, but of course, Neal was looking at things with green envy colored glasses.

 

When David happened upon Emma’s “masterpiece”, however, he bit back a laugh and knelt down to her level, explaining why they didn’t draw on the walls. He gave her some paper and went to work about cleaning it up. No timeout, nothing taken away, nothing had happened at all.

 

Neal’s patience overall went just a few days following the wall incident. He had been told ten million times to not keep his Lego projects out where Emma could reach. She was past the stage of putting things in her mouth and she never meant to destroy anything, but if she touched it, chances are she’d ruin it. Neal was like his mom in that his projects had to be absolutely perfect, he didn’t like anyone touching them. Before Emma, though, he never had to worry about that. He could leave them anywhere and his parents knew better.

 

After a week of working on the Batcave set that he had gotten for Hanukah, Neal left it out on the coffee table to go work on his homework. He returned a little bit later to play with it and found that the top half had fallen to the ground. Emma was sticking her own action figures in there. She looked up when she heard her brother’s gasp and held up her Captain America doll.

 

“Nee, play!”

“Emma!” He ran over to her, anger building up in his eyes. “You can’t do that! I worked hard on this!” Neal knew it was silly to cry over Legos, but the tears were building up in his eyes. “Why do you always have to ruin everything?!?”

Tears built up in Emma’s eyes. “Sorry, Nee. Accident.”

“Everything you do is an accident! You’re such a brat!”

 

Emma started bawling at that, just as David ran into the room, clearly having overheard his son. He lifted Emma into his arms and rubbed her back.

 

“Shhh, it’s okay, Emmy. It’s okay.”

“Didn’t mean too!” She wailed. “I’m sorry!”

“I know, Princess, I know. Next time, though, we can’t touch Nee’s toys. He doesn’t like that.”

 

David continued to rub Emma’s back and coo at her, until she finally calmed down. He looked down at Neal, his face becoming stern.

 

“As for you, young man, I know you were upset, but you cannot yell at your sister like that,” David lectured. “And you will not call her a brat. You need to apologize, just like she did.”

“I am not apologizing for crap!” Neal exploded.

“Neal David Nolan,” David warned.

“No! Emma gets away with everything! She draws on the walls and you laugh! She doesn’t eat her food, so you feed her! We have to leave places if she’s tired or crabby! All you and Mom do is take care of stupid her! You don’t even care about me anymore!”

“Neal, that’s not true.”

“Yes it is! You love her more than you love me!”

 

Before David could say anything else, Neal stormed out of the room. He looked between the stairs and the door that lead outside. He knew there was a chance he’d get in even more trouble for running away, but something told him to do it. Little did he realize, that was the bit of his mother and sister that had been passed down to him. Like a shot, he was out the door of the house and headed off towards the woods.

* * *

 

It didn’t take long for Neal to find his old treehouse. He hadn’t been to it in quite some time. When Margot and Alice originally came back to tell everyone about the Hyperion Heights curse, the whole town had gone in a tizzy. After that, they were so focused on uniting the realms, holding elections and dealing with the newest pint sized heroes, there wasn’t exactly time for playdates to be set up.

 

Neal climbed up the treehouse and sat down, looking around at all the posters. David had built the place for him when he was 6-years-old, he said that his dad always promised to build him one but never did. Neal didn’t hear much about his grandfather, but he knew that David wanted to be better than him. Lately, it hadn’t seemed it.

 

He expected to be out there far longer than he was. It had only been about 15 minutes until he heard the familiar crunch of leaves on the ground. A moment later, someone was climbing up the ladder and soon, he could see his father’s greying blonde hair. The first thing he did, was toss Neal his jacket.

 

“Your mother will kill me if you catch a cold,” he said, solemnly. Normally a line like that would’ve at least gotten both smiling, but it was clear that neither were in the mood.

Neal shrugged on his jacket and zipped it up. “Where’s Emma?”

“Your mother’s got her right now. She’s calmed down.”

“Good.”

“Neal.” David gave him a gentle look. “Do you really think that we love your sister more than we love you?”

Neal chewed on his lower lip. “She gets away with everything and our lives are constantly revolving around her. You never yell at her or punish her.”

“That’s not true. She does get time outs and things taken away.”

“I never see it.”

“Well, you’re at school 5 days a week. I’m home with Emma during that time.”

Neal folded his arms over his chest. “Still. You feed her when she won’t eat, you treat her like a baby.”

David couldn’t help but smile. “Neal, in many ways, your sister is a baby.” The smile faded. “You know, Emma didn’t have the greatest childhood the first time around. People weren’t very nice to her and along the way, she developed some problems.”

“What kind of problems?”

“Just…developmentally. That’s why she acts a little younger than Margot and Alice do,” he explained. “They had a lot of love and support from their parents, but Mom and I weren’t there for Emma.”

“Because of the curse?”

“That’s right.” David sighed. “You know, I’m always going to feel bad that I couldn’t help Emma there and it’s probably why we do baby her a bit more than we should. However, she does know that actions have consequences. We just have to make sure that they’re developmentally appropriate. Do you understand what that means?”

 

Neal tilted his head, but then nodded a bit. He supposed it made sense. He remembered there was a kid with ADHD and autism in his class the grade before. He had to go to special classes and got special attention. He didn’t know if Emma was like that, but if she was, it’d make sense.

 

“Regardless, Neal.” David reached over and squeezed his knee. “We love you, so much. We don’t love your sister more, _I_ don’t love your sister more.”

Neal frowned. “But you always go with her when she gets upset.”

“Because she’s attached to me. She trusts your mom, but she’s a bit clingier with me. You know, when you were a baby, you preferred your mom too.”

“I did?”

“Yes sir. I never took offense to it. You just had a very special bond, just like we do too.”

Neal dug his sneaker into some dust on the wood. “We haven’t gotten to do much together lately.”

“I know, bud. And I get that it can be hard to gain a new sibling. This was sort of dropped on your lap out of nowhere and you really have taken it in stride.” David looked deeper into his son’s eyes, the ones that seemed to perfectly mirror his own. “Talk to me, Nee. What’s going on?”

“It’s just not fair. When Phillip became a big brother, they got a baby. I took time before he was like Emma. He cried a lot, but it was different.” Neal shrugged. “I just miss how it used to be.”

“I get that. Change can be scary, it can also be pretty good.”

 

Neal didn’t say anything and David moved closer to him, putting an arm around him. He squirmed a bit, before resting his head on his shoulder.

 

“How about this, once a week we do something, just us. Even if it’s really small like you coming to the store with me.”

A smile tugged on Neal’s lips. “Really?”

“Really. I don’t love Emma more than you, bud. She’s my daughter, you’re my son. Nothing is going to change that.”

“Promise?”

“I promise. I’m sorry if it’s seemed different lately, but it’s true. Your sister went through the same thing when you were born.”

Neal’s eyes widened. “She did?”

“Oh yes. We had to remind her that she was still our daughter and that’s what I’m doing now. Your mom feels the same way.” He kissed the top of Neal’s head. “I’m going to try harder, Neal, I promise. I’m adjusting to all of this, same as you.”

Neal nodded. He believed him, more than anything. “Okay.” He still wasn’t sure how he felt about everything, but his dad’s words were helping a bit. “Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“All is forgiven. You still have to apologize to your sister.”

“I will…but could we hang out up here for a bit? Just us?”

“Of course, Nee. Of course.”


	2. Chapter 2

Snow walked through the door, setting her bag down. It had been another long day at the school, but a part of her wouldn’t have it any other way. She loved her students and now that the people of Storybrooke could age, she was getting a fresh batch of them every year. People in the town were happy.

 

She spotted a note on the counter saying that David had taken Emma to the “Dads’ Group”, which made her giggle a bit. Him, along with a bunch of other dads-both stay at home/work from home and those that worked out of it-had created a group for their kids to play while they talked and hung out. It had been Killian’s idea, his first time raising Alice, he barely had any other adult interaction and he wanted it to be different this time around.

 

Neal was due to be at a study group, so she was going to take advantage of some free hours until she heard some noises coming from the living room. She headed inside and found Neal curled up on the couch, still in his uniform and watching an Iron Man movie. Their new dog, Aslan, sat loyally by his feet, not moving or saying a word. Snow tilted her head and walked closer to him.

 

“Neal.” He looked up and she saw just how pale his face was. “What are you doing home?” Before he could answer, she put a hand on his forehead. “Oh, baby. You’re burning up.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. Go get changed into some pajamas. I’ll make you something to eat.”

“Don’t you have to take care of Emma? Or grade papers?”

 

Snow’s face fell. She and David had discussed Neal’s outburst at length, both knew that they weren’t completely in the wrong but also that they had to try a little harder. Yes, Emma needed their attention, but Neal still needed theirs as well. She wondered if she had missed out on him being sick before, with everything going on.

 

“Daddy took Emma to their dad group, my papers can wait. Now, come on.” She patted his knee. “Go on.”

 

She watched him get up and leave the room, before bustling around to get things ready for him. Neal rarely got sick, he wasn’t like Emma in that way. The few times he did, she knew it had to be serious. He hated missing school, so occasionally he would try to power through but she knew that wasn’t what it was that time. She had been so busy between work, helping Regina with the realms uniting and adjusting Emma to everything, Neal had come last. He wouldn’t anymore, she was already working on it. They did special things together, they talked more. Still, she knew that she had some more proving to do and that’s what she was going to do that day.

 

Eventually, Neal came back downstairs wearing flannel pajama pants and a grey t-shirt. She frowned a bit, realizing that slowly his collection of cartoon pajamas and graphic tees were dwindling. He was growing up, his 11th birthday had just past. Her little boy wasn’t exactly a little boy anymore. When had all of that happened? She had actually missed out on all of Emma’s childhood, but she had been right there for his.

 

When he laid down, she tucked a quilt over him and took his temperature. “You have a bit of a fever, but not too bad. Does anything hurt?”

“No.”

“Neal.” She cocked an eyebrow, giving him her “mom look”.

He sighed, twirling the front of his hair a bit. “My stomach.”

“My poor baby. I’m going to make you some broth and I’ll be right back.”

“Mom, really…”

“I’ll be right back.”

 

She disappeared into the kitchen, making the broth and trying to remember what else she did for an upset stomach. Ginger ale didn’t go with soup, but tea did. Snow busied herself, going through the checklists in her head and texted David to pick up dinner for himself and Emma. She got a response a few minutes later, reminding her how well her husband knew her.

 

_Make sure you eat too._

 

Soon, the food was ready and she brought it into the living room, setting the tray up on top of him. She hoped it was just a 24 hour bug and that it would pass in time. He ate slowly, barely finishing any of the broth though he did get all of the tea. The movie credits started to roll and Neal lifted the remote, about to put on another movie, but then paused.

 

“You don’t like superheroes right?”

“I can put up with it for one afternoon,” Snow said with a wink.

 

Neal weakly smiled and flipped to the next movie in the franchise. He curled up a bit so Snow could sit beside him and she did so, moving up a shirt a bit so she could rub his stomach just like she did when he was little and complained of a tummy ache. At first she worried he’d push her away but he just smiled, adjusting so his head was on her lap and he was a bit more comfortable.


End file.
